Italy sucks...oh yeah, I need help please

[nmeofdst82]

Italy sucks...oh yeah, I need help please (FIXED)

so I shipped my car but it ended up taking like 1/3 of the time so it ended up sitting at the port for 3 months....

I picked it up last week and did a walk around/under and didn't see anything obvious. After test driving it around town, I noticed what feels like the rear end pushing out left under hard acceleration. If I accelerate out of a curve (like on of the 10 billion traffic circles in Italy) or I have the car just a little tiny bit from dead straight and gun it, the ass end feels like its going to slide out from under me...always feels like its going to the left.

I hit the autocraft shop today and checked on the watts link setup, the lca's, shocks, anti squats, etc.... The only thing out of the ordinary was the watts link center bolt/race assembly deal was rusted so that it couldn't move up and down. I disassembled, cleaned, etc and put it back together and it now goes up and down and has the free movement it should.

I took it out for a drive and it doesn't seem to be any better...maybe a little but still doesn't feel safe. It otherwise drives like a champ.

The best way to describe the feeling is: imagine flooring it and the tires break loose and you feel the ass end go left until you straighten out or let off the gas....just like that except the tires aren't breaking loose when it happens....but the feeling is still there. It's pretty un-nerving.

Anyone ever heard of something similar or have any suggestions? I know the watts link adjustable bars basically let you adjust the location left/right of your axle and such...but its all tight and looks just like it did over a year ago when I installed it. This problem is definitely new since the car was shipped.

Could it possibly be (I always turn off Traction Control) some issue with the LSD pads or something...I guess to check that as a possibility I should find a place to do a burnout and see if they are even right? And not just one side is getting power and not the other for some reason?

There is no noise, howling, grinding or anything else and no other issues. Thanks in advance...

Did I mention Italy blows!

 

[zipperhead]

You sure your axle is centered under you car? I don't have a Watts link but when mine was off 3/4 " it would do the same thing.

 

[nmeofdst82]

hrmm

I checked your suggestion and wouldn't you know, the left side is 1/2" or a little more inset from the fender than the right side....i know that shit was even before. Maybe when they strapped it down or something.

Can't get back into the autocraft shop again until tomorrow morning its 1830 at night here already and like 930 west coast..pfft...

I'll adjust it and post back if it works...crossing fingers. Thanks for the help.

 

[Mustangfreak]

Off topic, but I'd love to go to Italy. Why don't you like it?

When I was in Okinawa, all of the young people bitched about bieng there and how it sucked. But fuck I loved that island. I want to go back.

 

[nmeofdst82]

It's like this....I been in the army just over 20 years now and in that time been stationed overseas or deployed my fair share. Of all the places i've been, this place licks monkey balls. Expensive as all hell and the economy isn't helping that much. I had to come unaccompanied for 2 years cause 1 of those I'll be vacationing in scenic Afghanistan. The people drive about as jacked up as they did in Korea only I have my nice car here and not my 500 hooptie I had there. They make some of the fastest cars in the world...but have a max speed limit of 140km (like 85mph and they got these cool cameras that mail you tickets) on the Autostrada, LOL I seriously do not get that one. They close in the middle of the day for 2-4 hours to take a frickin nap, haha.

When I got to korea I had an apartment by the end of my first day there. The day I finally move into my house here...I will have been here 23 days and it will have taken 22 total trips to the housing office that is about a 10 min walk off post....that is just the way everything is here...extremely convoluted and difficult to accomplish even the simplest tasks. It's like the big joke, only its true.

If I was single, this would be great. Plenty of hot italian women around wanting to hook a Joe. As I'm currently trying to hold on to the good woman I've got that is kind of out of the question. Oh, and they are kind of rude in general and most of the dudes forgot how to bathe it seems and smell like ass and cologne.

Thats probably a longer answer than you were looking for, but I'm bored and since its either type this or watch International CNN on the only english channel on the tv in this hotel that I've been watching for 3 weeks now, it seemed like a good time to word vomit, LOL.
/endrant sorry about that.

 

[xxDerek]

Didn't even know you shipped out man, haven't seen ya since our San Francisco cruise! Good luck out there bro

 

[Arkady001]

Most of that sounds like 'Army' admin problems rather than Italy per se...

Take a trip north and you'll find some better roads to play on - and buy a TomTom satnav that has speed-camera alerts pre-installed, then you can tear up the mountain roads with impunity - the Autostradas are just for getting from A-B, not for fun...same as everywhere in 'Yoorp'...we all rip it up on the back-roads here where there are fewer, if any speed cameras.

Getting used to the gas prices we have to endure yet? lol

We'll be in Afghan in October...see you there...

 

[nmeofdst82]

Success!!

took a while (cause I'm type-A when I measure) but got it even and centered.

Retorqued a bunch of stuff down there too like the LCA bolts. Don't know if it was from sitting so long or what but was no where near the torque spec.

Handles like a champ again, actually broke the tires loose like it should have when i stomped on it versus doing the electric slide to the left like it has been. Came out of a few traffic circles smooth as butter, I love the autocraft shop.

two days getting greasy in there has really cheered me up.

Apparently there is a car show near Milan on 11-12 July and there are some italians and americans that get together about 1.5hours from here to drag race. Guy was telling me how his challenger was smoking people. He says, "yeah, I ran a 13.2 and smoked this mustang pretty hard." I can't wait to go down there and rip him a new one just for fun. Challenger is the car of choice on post here it seems, there must be 10 of them running around, 3 of them SRT8. A lot of deployment bonus money to go around.

I'm supposed to start going TDY up around Schweinfurt one week a month or so until we deploy. Any drag racing going on semi close to there?

 

[zipperhead]

Did you load your axle when centering your car and torquing your bolts? It makes a difference.

 

[nmeofdst82]

Yep...waited for a few hours for the 4 wheel drive-on lift to open up.

Car definitely hookin and bookin like before...two random circumstance porsche kills today so far, wasn't even looking either, go figure. Gonna have to go post in the kills section cause these were pretty fun kills.

 

[LSlayer]

Just for the record I miss Italy. But when I was there I was ready to leave too. I miss the awesome TDYs, Cola, and travel. Siesta does suck in the middle of the day when your trying to take care of shit tho. I dont know how much the autostrada has changed since I was there last but I usually did around 150-170 kph without getting any tickets. I hated paying tolls but the roads there are maintained much better than here in the states. Now I cant drive 5 mins w/o hitting a work/construction zone. Glad to see your car is back in fighting shape tho. Have fun showing the locals your tailights.

 

[nmeofdst82]

it ain't all bad...but I would really have preferred going back to Germany.

I started a Kills in Italy thread over in the Kills section. Working on my car some and whoopin a couple of Porsches has me in a much better mood for sure.